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Updated: The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought cases against three entities after an investigation of private company stock trading in companies such as Facebook.

The charges end a year-long investigation by the SEC and are a milestone in the fast growing but still emerging market in private company stock trading. Investors have been pouring into this market particularly in hopes of buying shares of consumer Internet names such as Facebook and Twitter.

A number of firms in recent years have created "special purpose vehicles" or pooled funds specifically to purchase stock in one or more private companies such as Facebook. The SEC alleges in the charges announced today that the firms were "misleading investors and pocketing undisclosed fees and commissions." The funds involved raised more than $70 million from investors.

In the first case, the SEC has charged New York-based Felix Investments LLC, and Frank Mazzola of Felix with "improper self-dealing," that is, earning secret commissions on deals funds above the 5% that investors thought they were paying for Facebook stock. The actions created a "disincentive" for Mazzola and his funds to get a lower price for fund investors. In addition, Mazzola and associates sold interests in "Facie Libre," the name of the Facebook fund, despite knowing that Felix did not have any Facebook shares to sell.

The SEC complaint, filed in San Francisco, also alleges that Mazzola and associates made false statements to investors in other funds. Felix "misled" one investor into believing Felix had acquired stock of Zynga, the SEC alleges. Felix also made "false representations" about Twitter's revenue to attract investors in a Twitter fund, the SEC says.

The SEC is seeking court orders prohibiting Felix and Mazzola from engaging in securities fraud and requiring the firm to pay back gains and pay penalties.

The SEC also settled Wednesday with two other firms, Sharespost and EB Financial Group. Sharespost, which provides a platform for trading in private company stock, has entered into a settlement with the SEC regarding its past actions in 2010 to 2011. Sharespost is paying a fine of $80,000 and founder and former CEO Greg Brogger is paying $20,000. Neither party admits any wrongdoing in the deal.

When Sharespost originally launched as a platform for secondary transactions, it was not registered as a broker-dealer. After a buyer and a seller were matched, the firm forwarded deals to a third-party broker dealer, Emerson Equities. "We'd send that person to a registered broker dealer who would qualify them and enter into an agreement," Brogger said in an interview Wednesday. "We felt that was appropriate and in keeping with SEC guidance and no action letters... The SEC came to a different opinion, saying that they felt that we should’ve been our own broker-dealer."

Sharespost complied fully with the investigation, supplying more than 100,000 pages of documents and emails, Brogger said. Now, however, the broker-dealer issue is academic for Sharespost, since it was approved as a broker-dealer and alternative trading system in 2011, Brogger says.

EB Financial Group and its main executive Laurence Albukerk were targeted for an administrative proceeding because his firm hid compensation from investors in two Facebook funds, the SEC said. Albukerk told investors he charged 5% up front plus 5% when shares were distributed upon a Facebook IPO. But Albukerk "obtained additional compensation" by using an entity controlled by his wife to purchase Facebook stock and then sold interests in that entity to EB funds at a mark-up, the SEC alleged. Albukerk also got a brokerage fee. Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, Albukerk and EB Financial agreed to pay $210,499 in "disgorgement and prejudgment interest" plus a penalty of $100,000.

EB Financial provided this statement:

"EB Financial Group believes this settlement with the SEC is in the firm’s best interests and we are pleased to put this matter behind us. The agreement with the SEC settles the SEC’s claims that EB Financial Group should have disclosed legally earned compensation in our offering materials, not just in response to investor inquiries and in post-closing disclosures. Furthermore, based on market prices at the time of their investment and today, each investor’s investment in our funds appears profitable. Under the terms of the settlement, EB Financial Group has neither admitted nor denied any of the SEC’s claims."